10.25.2012

Joie 100th Days! Best Yellow Cake + Hazelnut & Milo Frosting

Followed Yellow Layer cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen and I have to say this is really really good! Yum yum...

hazelnut spread

Usually I make 2 types of frosting - the regular icing sugar buttercream and Swiss meringue buttercream. The icing sugar is overly sweet and for Swiss meringue, I usually use Wilton's pasteurized meringue egg white powder and it has a fake smell that I don't favor even if I add Madgascar vanilla paste. I wanted a sightly better option and I decided to try the buttercream with flour.

It looked easy. I tried with the all natural, unbleached, gluten-free Bob's Mill AP flour. I failed. Lesson learnt- follow the instructions for first tries.

Whipping the new batch of frosting to a good consistency, I cheated with this - sublime hazelnut spread, added Milo and Hersey's cocoa powder. Ohhhhhh.... it taste great!

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons (480 grams) cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon (5 grams) table salt
2 sticks (1 cup, 1/2 pound or 225 grams) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups (400 grams) sugar
2 teaspoons (10 ml) pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk (475 ml), well-shakenPreheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line
with circles of parchment paper, then butter parchment. (Alternately,
you can use a cooking spray, either with just butter or butter and flour
to speed this process up.)Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium
bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl
with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat
in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the
bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just
combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three
batches, mixing until each addition is just Incorporated.Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several
times to eliminate air bubbles. (I like to drop mine a few times from
two inches up, making a great big noisy fuss.) Bake until golden and a
wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40
minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge
of pan. Invert onto rack and discard parchment, then cool completely,
about 1 hour.

Frosting Ingredients

5 TablespoonsFlour

1 cupMilk

1 teaspoonVanilla

1 cupButter

1 cupGranulated Sugar (not Powdered Sugar!)

Preparation Instructions

Bake your favorite chocolate cake and let it cool. In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring
constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be very thick, thicker
than cake mix, more like a brownie mix is. Remove from heat and let it
cool to room temperature. (If I’m in a hurry, I place the saucepan over
ice in the sink for about 10 minutes or so until the mixture cools.) It
must be completely cool before you use it in the next step. Stir in
vanilla. While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together
until light and fluffy. You don’t want any sugar graininess left.
Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat the
living daylights out of it. If it and fluffy. You don’t want any sugar graininess left. Then add the
completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat the living
daylights out of it. If it looks separated, you haven’t beaten it
enough! Beat it until it all combines and resembles whipped cream.Grab a spoon and taste this wonderful goodness. If there is any left
after your taste test, spread it on a cooled chocolate cake. Cut yourself a piece and put it on a pretty plate. Grab a fork and
prepare to experience the most divine pairing you can imagine. This
frosting on chocolate cake is to die for. Sure, the recipe sounds
strange — it has flour in it — but it’s sublime. Try it, you’ll see.
You’ll love it so much you won’t go back.